Help an old CRT user with transitioning to digital and CIH - Page 3

Ok, looking for some advice on the screen now. Should I go for 2.35, 2.37 or 2.40? It will need to be acoustically transparent and I'm going for a width of 130" viewable area. I have read a bit about SMX and Seymour AV. It looks like Seymour list pricing on their site while SMX does not. That alone probably tells me the SMX is more expensive. I also looked at an Elite Screens fixed frame 2.35 from Visual Apex. This is by far the most affordable of what I have seen so far. It's about half what the Seymour screen cost and the SMX is probably the most expensive of these three but that's unknown until I request pricing from them I suppose.

What do you recommend?

I'm starting to get a little worried about how much it's going to cost me to go CIH. I tore down a perfectly good CRT setup and now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. It will be months before I can afford a projector, screen, etc. I have an old Prismasonic lens that I don't even know will work in my room and reading about Isco lenses just got me depressed. What do you people that can afford those things do for a living? I would be out on my ass if my wife found out I spent that kind of money on a lens. Sorry to complain, I'm just getting a dose of reality I suppose and I really haven't spent much yet. Bought some used speakers, a new receiver and re-purposed my 5 channel amp until I can get monoblocks. Oh, what to do...

Yeah, I missed an ISCO II recently because I thought it was a bit much for the age and condition. I haven't even tried this Prismasonic yet so I guess I should be patient and wait until I get a projector in here. I have made a few blackout cloth screens in the past and also did a Wilsonart laminate screen a few years ago. I'm okay with DIY but with the way the AT fabric needs to be tilted I wonder if I might be taking a chance.

Okay, I'm currently looking at the following options:

1. Panamorph UH380 with no sled
2. Panamorph UH480 with ATH1 sled
3. Prismasonic H1200R (already have this but still yet to try it)

Aside from the UH480 having the sled, is any of these a good bit better than another? With my VP50Pro scaler would it be possible to use the UH380 in the light path at all times and manipulate the picture back to 16:9 for that content?

Well, I'm bidding on one now in an auction but it will probably go for more than I want to spend. The reason I'm leaning towards Panamorph now is because I have a shorter throw than might be ideal for the Prismasonic lens. I think I would be right in the sweet spot with the Panamorph though. I honestly don't know what a good price would be for it.

Well, I missed out on the UH480 and slide. Just more than I want to spend for this. I think I have decided to stop obsessing over the lens and just settle on a projector first. If the Prismasonic I have works then fine, if not I will live with it until I can find a UH480 I can afford.

By the way, I finally got SMX to price me on the screen I want. They were apparently too busy to respond to my email directly and sent my information to "Polivision". The price was nearly double what the Seymour screen would be so that ends that debate. I'm not looking at Seymour or Elite.

Yeah, I'm on the list and even with the deal that it is I'm nervous about spending that much for just the projector. I'm looking at $1400+ for a screen and I have other things to buy for the room. I'm not sure I understand the way zooming works. I know that I want a 130" wide scope screen so that's about 55.4" high. The 16:9 image would be 55.4 x 98.6 and the 2.35:1 image would be 55.4 x 130.19. I have about 16' of throw to work with so I have no idea if zooming would work for me or not.


Well, if I'm reading this projector calculator correctly then maybe I should just try zooming first. I have my eyes on the RS10 because it's more in my budget and I can get this used and the screen for close to what the RS45 will cost or a bit more. According to the calculator I could do both the 16:9 and 2.35:1 screen sizes I want by mounting the projector at 16' throw and just working the zoom. I would get about 18 foot lamberts in 16:9 and about 14 foot lamberts in 2.35:1. Hmmm...maybe the lens can wait. Oh decisions, decisions.

Yeah, that's another thing is seating distance. My room is small so the front seats will be about 9 to 9-1/2 feet from the screen and the second row of seats will be maybe 14 to 15 feet from the screen. It's closer than I would like but if I'm getting more than two or three chairs in the room I have to have two rows. This room is just a spare bedroom.

Yeah, I saw that! If only I had your money!

Well, I have a projector finally. It wasn't my first choice but it gets me in the door of the technology I wanted. It's a JVC RS1 and appears to be in great shape. I have been running it for a few days just sitting on a box and projecting onto my soon to be retired 16:9 screen. Picture looks awesome to me although it doesn't have the CRT fade to black which I will miss. I guess the next step is to see if this Prismasonic lens will work or not. I'm thinking my throw is going to be too short for it with the screen size I want to use.

Yep, I have a VP50 Pro. I took my Prismasonic lens apart and painted the housing black. As soon as I get it back together I plan to test it with this projector.

I need some help with my screen wall. I have some inwall speakers that I want to use behind an AT screen. Just one problem, I don't want to mount the speakers "in" the wall. I have a large window right in the middle of that wall right where the center channel would be. I need to build some sort of framework to hold the speakers on that wall while also providing a substantial enough support for the actual screen. I'm starting to lean towards possibly going with Seymour AV Centerstage material only and attaching it to a DIY frame. I have to be very conservative with my space as the room has a short throw to begin with. I want the speakers, wall treatment and screen to be as shallow as possible (9-10" or less). My speakers are about 4-1/4" deep and I plan to cover the screen wall and window area with 1-2" of rigid insulation just like I made my DIY absorbers out of. The screen will then sit in front of the speakers, at least 2" I think is what I need to allow for breathing room. The speakers do have fully enclosed aluminum back boxes so I don't think NOT having them in the walls will be a huge issue. I have been running them for a while just sitting on the floor propped up against the wall. They sound pretty darn good already. Any suggestions on how I might make this support system for the speakers/screen?

Just wanted to check in and let you guys know that I finally got around to trying out this Prismasonic lens with the RS1 which I recently purchased. I'm still using my 16:9 screen which is just leaning against the wall at an angle and I have black curtains on the sides of where the screen used to be so not ideal conditions for testing. I did a temporary setup with the projector and lens sitting about two feet off the floor on foot stools and placed about 16' 3" from my screen wall. My target screen size is 98" wide for 16:9 material and 130" wide for 2.35 material. That makes the height roughly 55". I will be the first to admit that I'm really pushing screen size in my small room and right now I'm okay with that. I also realize that I will loose a bit more throw distance once I get a baffle wall and proper screen up. Anyway, my point here is that after just some very rough and brief viewing I am impressed with how the image looks from this budget combo. After reading about prism lenses I was concerned about how things would look and I'm sure once the setup is more ideal I will notice some issues that I don't now but I must say I was pleasantly surprised upon my initial viewing. The image is still very sharp and clear with the lens in place and I see very little geometry problems at the edges of the picture, nothing I can't fix with masking or a bit of tweaking I think. I guess the bottom line is that I'm relieved that I may be able to live with this lens and projector for a while and just upgrade as budget allows. I don't feel the need to go drop thousands of dollars on an ISCO now or even a Panamorph with motorized sled. This remote control prism lens seems to do the trick for now. More to follow of course as I begin to get things setup. I'm really stumped on what to do with my front speakers and screen wall so that's next up.